


Right Here, Right Now

by CaptainNightGale



Series: The songs our lives sing [5]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, they're dorks in love, what else do you need really?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 20:46:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13959690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainNightGale/pseuds/CaptainNightGale
Summary: But I won't take that trainI won't catch that flightIf you're notOn that planeWe ain't takin' off tonight





	Right Here, Right Now

**Author's Note:**

> This one was fun! I'm still a sucker for song lyrics
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mcienp6cKo

Adrien catches sight of Marinette when he’s racing across the rooftops as Chat Noir. He grins, and can’t help lunging down into the nearest alley and leaving the transformation behind him. “Hey, Mari!”  
Plagg dives into his pocket _seconds_ before Marinette twists to see him.  
She yelps, one hand flying to the purse she always carrying, the other holding her sketchbook up as if to hit him. “Adrien!”  
Adrien holds up his hands as he laughs, slowing so that he can walk beside her. “Didn’t mean to startle you. I just - couldn’t resist.”  
“How did you get out of the house? You don’t have a shoot, or anything scheduled,” Marinette asks.  
That she always knows his schedule – better than _he_ does – is amazing. But as Chat Noir, he’s seen the inside of her room. She’s had his schedule pin to the underside of her trapdoor for a long time. As Adrien, he's seen her room too, but it's been curiously devoid of the masses of photoshoots and the schedule in those moments.  
Since they started dating, it's been like that all the time. Just a few pictures left, of the four of them. Some of the rest of her class. Her family.  
“Can you keep a secret?” He slings an arm about her shoulders, pulling her close to him so he can whisper in her ear.  
She giggles and blushes bright red, and he thinks he’ll never get used to that. He doesn’t think he wants to.  
“Did you sneak out?” she asks, her voice a stage-whisper.  
Adrien grins and kisses her temple, because he can’t help himself.  
She blushes again, and it’s red on red because her _last_ hadn’t quite faded out.  
“And I saw you and I couldn’t resist – is it terrible that I want to keep you for myself?” He steps back, because it’s awkward to walk that close, but his hand slips down to hold hers and she wraps her fingers about his hand. Or as much she _can_ , with hands that small.  
“Away from Nino and Alya?” Marinette asks.  
Adrien nods as they wander down towards the Eiffel Tower. “I know we’re all dating and we shouldn’t _really_ be jealous, but…”  
Marinette laughs and bumps her hip against him. Her purse sways with the movement, nudging at his side. “I’m sure they won’t mind.”  
“You think?”  
“Certain,” she replies. “What, you don't think they sneak off to be a couply couple on their own? They were dating each other before us.”  
“Oh, of course." He knew this. It makes sense, after all; and if they want to be alone, then for sure there's no harm in him here with Mari without them.  
Mari's blushing again; there's something she's not telling him.  
"Spill, Mari. What's got you glowing?"  
"Don't." Mari laughs and pushes him away.  
"No, come on." He's laughing, because he _knows_ what she's thinking about. After so long, he can read her like his favourite book. "Tell me why we all started dating again?"  
Mari groans and hits at him ineffectually with her sketchbook. "You _know_ why."  
"Sure, sure. Tell me anyway." Adrien catches her sketchbook and takes it from her, using it to shield them from the sun. “I like hearing you say it.”  
“You _dork_.” Marinette groans, but she doesn’t let go of his hand.  
Adrien laughs. “I’m waiting!” he half-sings, a spring still bouncing in his step.  
“Because we all love each other,” she answers, grinning. “And this way we don't crash anyone's dates. You know that. We say it often enough.”  
“Yes, but you in particular…” Adrien draws it out, laughter in his eyes like the sun.  
Mari laughs and pushes him away with a hand running through his already wind tousled hair. “Because I had a _massive crush_ on you. Happy?”  
“Always.” Adrien ducks away from her hand and presses another kiss to her forehead.  
“You dork,” Mari mutters, affectionately.  
“ _Your_ dork.” Adrien grins.  
"My dork," Mari agrees, sounding _very_ self-satisfied. Very much the cat that got the cream.  
And Adrien _loves_ the sound of it, loves it so much that he can't help the joyous burst of laughter that escapes him out into the glorious Paris sunshine.  
"Alya's and Nino's too, of course," Mari is saying. "They have a part in your dorkishness as well."  
"Not as big a part as _you_ , though."  
"Well... since they're not here..."  
As they reach the steps of the trocadero, overlooking the way down towards the Eiffel Tower, Adrien has a sudden urge – a feeling of _everything_ , all at once, that makes him want to – to sing and dance, and just – _live_ and _laugh_ and _love_ with Mari at his side. Normally it's a patrol feeling, it's messing about with Ladybug, it's their puns and quips and games, but even so it bleeds over into his unmasked life more and more, whenever she was there and laughing at his side.  
It's second nature, then, to sweep Mari up with all the strength that bounding about the rooftops of Paris has given him and spin her around, delight splitting a sparkling grin that could be seen from the sun on his face.  
Mari squeaks and buries her face in his neck, and he feels her laughter in his very being and it's _beautiful_.  
He stumbles and comes up against the wall, and without much of a break swings Mari up to sit on it, boosting himself to her side before she's settled.  
People are staring, but they're always staring. He's Adrien Agreste and he's with the prettiest (unmasked) girl in Paris, why _wouldn't_ they stare?  
But it catches him, for all of an unwanted moment, and he remembers just _how many_ pictures Mari had had up on her walls of his modelling. Yes, she was a designer herself – they could've just been for inspiration – but why _only him_? Why – she had the talent to go far, but...  
"Adrien?" Her hand is soft against his, and she's gesturing for her sketchbook. "Can I have that, please?"  
"Oh – yes, of course." Almost distantly, he hands it to her. Lost in the turmoil of voices he doesn't want to believe, but...  
There are a lot of them. Chief is his father's who had disapproved from the start. Had believed the worst of Mari, never liked Nino, thought Alya was too nosey and antagonistic.  
He tries to bury the voice, but-  
"Is everything ok? You've gone quiet," Mari says, her sketchbook closed in her lap.  
"Why was it just my modelling photos that you had all over your walls?" Adrien asks, before he can really stop himself.  
"How – how do you know about that?" Mari stutters, her blush threatening to return.  
Oh. Oops. "Alya told me?"  
Mari scowls, and Adrien worries that he's dropped Alya in it. "I'm a... a big fan of your father's works. I was using them for inspiration."  
"But just the ones that I wore?" He pushes, because if she's going to talk about it, then it must... it must be ok, right?  
"Because of that massive crush I had on you, remember?" The words fall flat, like they're supposed to be joking but aren't.  
"Oh, of – course." Adrien's voice is light, his smile pleasing – as well practised as ever even as his feelings crash.  
All those photos because of her crush, or her crush because of all those photos?  
"Adrien." Her voice calls him back from spiralling, and he wonders if she would be able to do that were he an akuma. Probably.  
He tilts sideways to look at her, and meets her defiantly earnest gaze.  
"I didn't have any of those pictures before I knew you. Before I knew how kind and understanding you are, and how patient when you don't have to be, and that day – your umbrella-" she cuts off. "You were never _just_ a pretty face," she says carefully.  
“Ah, so you admit I’m pretty-” The teasing comes naturally to him, a by-product of the time spent free to say what he will behind a mask, and never have it reflected back on him by his father.  
Mari laughs and pushes him away.  
He rocks back easily, bending with the movement and feeling her hand - pencil hooked between her fingers - warm against his chest.  
"I never got it back, you know." And she _had_ taken down all of the magazine pictures.  
"I couldn't bring myself to return it." Mari shrugs, reaching a hand up to tuck some of his hair back behind his ear. "It's a reminder. To keep me grounded. Or – well, as grounded as I _can_ be."  
Adrien laughs, and his hand tightens on hers again. “Do you spend a lot of time flying about the city?”  
Mari considers him for a moment, then laughs at him. “If tripping over it counts.”  
“As long as I’m there to catch you,” Adrien says, with all the intensity of his youthful heart. “My-”  
Marinette blinks at him, and there isn’t even the hint of a blush this time.  
Adrien reconsiders. That might have been _too_ much coming from his unmasked self (and too close, neither of them were - she wasn’t-). “Sorry, that just-”  
“Why Adrien,” Marinette cuts across him, recovering with a bat of her eyelashes that almost looks to have been plucked from Chloe’s books, “Did you mistake me for _Ladybug_ there?” Her tone is teasing, her playful smirk almost Chat Noir’s own.  
Adrien blanks, is caught unawares, and now it’s _his_ turn to blush. His cheeks have never been so warm, and he’s sure he could be used as a warning light for ships passing in the night, they feel that bright.  
Marinette laughs, delighted. “It is possible! I _knew_ I could get you to blush. Payback!” She crows, victorious.  
This was - oh, she was almost too much, she was brilliant and perfect and maybe she wasn’t Ladybug (or maybe she _was_ , whispered Adrien’s most heartfelt feelings, because she hadn’t negated that as such, but-) but she was here and he was hers and he could - with that, he could do _anything_ , he’d run up the Eiffel Tower to yell it, just to make sure the world knew, and-  
“Adrien?” Marinette winds her fingers through his, sounding concerned. “Are you alright? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean - Alya said you couldn’t but I wanted to see and I took the chance because I couldn’t resist and-”  
“Marinette.” Adrien catches her hands as they start flying, thankful she’d left both pencil and sketchbook in her lap. “You have my permission to do that at _any_ point you think is necessary.”  
Marinette giggles, high pitched and relieved. “I don’t think I can do that again.”  
Adrien presses a kiss to her palm. “And I meant it, you know. Whatever you do, wherever you go. I want to be there at your side.”  
Mari smiles, soft and slow. “I’d like that,” she whispers, tilting her hand in his grasp to stroke down his cheek. “I’d like that _very_ much.”

**Author's Note:**

> Ok maybe it's a mess but w/e  
> hmu @captainnightgale on tumblr!


End file.
